Humanity burned to ashes: Joshua Hangshing
Source: Chronicle News Service
Kpi, June 10 2023:
It was around 4pm in the afternoon on June 4 that I re-turned to the relief camp at the Water Treatment Plant inside Kangchup post of 22 Assam Ri-fles, where my family along with a few other Kukis took shelter after the eruption of violence.
My son yelled 'Papa, Papa' the moment he saw me from the window and he was silent.
Then, my wife Meena called me 'Papa, come and see what happened to our son'.
I rushed to the room and saw my son covered with blood from his head and crying in pain.
I was so shocked that I went into semi-consciousness and all my body got numb, narrated Joshua Hangshing, the father of the minor boy who was burnt alive along with his mother Mee-na and another woman named Lydia near Iroisemba in Imphal West by a huge mob on June 4 evening.
Joshua Hangshing is a mason by profession and belongs to Kuki tribe while his wife Meena was from the Meitei community.
Lydia, the wife of Naoton, who was burnt alive with the minor boy and his mother, was a Meitei Christian.
According to Joshua, his son was hit by splinter on his head and Assam Rifles Coy Com-mander informed about the inci-dent to Imphal West SP Later, an ambulance was sent with three vehicles of police commandos.
"I thought that iffy child would be evacuated to Army Hospi-tal at Leimakhong but it was not.
Had he been evacuated to Leimakhong Army hospital, he would have been alive," said the heartbroken father.
Joshua Hangshing who is now staying with his daugh-ter, a class-VIII student and his eldest son, a class-X student, at Keithelmanbi village says hu-manity has been burnt to ashes along with his son, wife and his relative.
Joshua had been avoiding people for few days owing to his health and emotional condition.
He also said that an FIR will be filed in connection with the killing of his son, wife and the other woman.